


A Vetting Assignment

by LatteWolf



Series: Warren Kepler and Daniel Jacobi: Flashes in Time [1]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Daniel Jacobi-centric, Flashbacks, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Third Person, Pining, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21864520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LatteWolf/pseuds/LatteWolf
Summary: Daniel Jacobi and Major Warren Kepler are alone on a special vetting assignment, and tensions grow as the both of them are tiptoeing around their feelings.
Relationships: Daniel Jacobi/Warren Kepler
Series: Warren Kepler and Daniel Jacobi: Flashes in Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1575169
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	A Vetting Assignment

**Author's Note:**

> I love their dynamic so much and writing for them is so fun, especially pre-Urania missions. Too lazy to run this through grammarly so I'm just posting it. Might get betaed and edit later. It's been a while but I'm back y'all!!!
> 
> Edit: now betaed by my sibling @CumuloSirius! Fixed major errors and polished it a little bit. I want to emphasize that Daniel's hesitance in their relationship is based on experience, but overall despite knowing him so intimately, he continues to pursue the goodness he sees in him.

Of course it was a vetting assignment. Why was it always a vetting assignment? Maybe there was just some romantic aura about the sweaty,  crumb-f illed, flea-ridden "totally not surveillance van" prison with a six-hour sentence — six hours alone with none other than Major Warren Kepler. The sadistic bastard probably got his rocks off on knowing he could even charm the pants off Daniel Jacobi in a neckbeard-mobile.

Daniel's pants were thoroughly charmed nonetheless, because a six-hour smelly car prison meant even more terrible car games. After a while, even Warren Kepler got bored with his no-talking rule.

“It's called Questions Only," Daniel starts, ignorant to the hellfire he was currently igniting .  "T he title is kind of self-explanatory . ” Daniel is haphazardly trying to shuffle a deck of cards that's missing half a suit and all sevens. He makes a stack and pushes it together until it explodes upward, scattering in piles all over the carpet. He grumbles and chucks the Jack of spades into the cup holder next to Warren, who is sitting across from him.

“That's… that's it? Just asking questions?” Warren asks, already cracking a smile.

“Well, what  do you think a game called Questions Only would  _ be _ ?” Daniel sends back.

“I guess I look stupid now, don't I ,  Mr. Jacobi?” Warren replies.

The air gets a little too warm, a little too electric. There's a pause ;  each of them  breathes in the air,  twiddles their thumbs.

“So who's this guy we're stalking again?” Daniel asks after a while.

“How many times do I have to tell you it's not stalking?”

“Well, whatever you call it to  sound professional, camping out in front of someone's house in a shady van is still stalking. I don't know what to tell you, Major.”

Daniel looks back up at him, and he's doing one of those signature annoying Warren Kepler grins. He bares his stupid, perfect teeth and stares obnoxiously.

“Okay, fine, I lost. Just answer my question,” Daniel says, rolling his eyes.

“Do I look like someone who answers to a man that just admitted defeat?” Warren replies.

"I taught you this game seconds ago , are you already gonna make me regret it?" Daniel groans.

Warren looks smug.

"Ugh, that wasn't a Questions Only question. Just a regular question," Daniel grumbles.

" _ She _ is a potential candidate. Cutter just had to… excommunicate an entire strategic intelligence unit a few weeks ago.” Warren says.

“Strategic intelligence? You mean those egomaniacal black ops frat boys?" Daniel scoffed. "Good riddance. Never cared much for those guys anyway.”

“Well, those  ' frat boys ' are essential to gathering data that keeps branches like yours alive. Where do you think engineering gets all that intel on fancy new tech from?” Warren replies.

“Doesn't excuse them being douchebags. Hope our candidate doesn't do anything shady, that sausage fest could use a brain or two.”

Warren is raising an eyebrow like he's about to make Daniel look really stupid.

“I'm not really at liberty to share this, but Cutter mentioned something about noticing us working well together, and we're pretty much the most qualified people in our fields. With a little more manpower- or woman power, that is...”

“You're kidding,” Daniel says, slack-jawed .

“I don't believe so , ” Warren replies.

Daniel purses his lips looking at the cheap nylon carpet, dumbfounded. Work well together, huh? He looks up at Warren and meets his eyes before darting back down.

“Major Kepler, Ballistic Specialist Jacobi, and shady mystery woman: strategic intelligence dream team. Well, isn't that something?” Daniel says.

“Isn't it?” Warren asks.

“Are we really carrying a conversation like this, Major?” Daniel says, chuckling.

“Are you afraid to lose again?” Warren coyly replies.

“If I deny that childish question, can we continue?” Daniel asks.

“If we're picking up where we left off, how do you feel about working together?” Warren asks.

Oh, Daniel swears  it's like Warren can read him like a book. Cheeky asshole.

“Would you agree that we work well together?” Daniel throws back.

"What do you think inspired Cutter's consideration of our partnership?"

Did he..?

Of course he did. Daniel knew Cutter owed him a favor for something that happened in their past. Being owed  a favor from Marcus Cutter is being promised a wish from the gods themselves.

“You… Why… Did you really..?” Daniel stuttered, taken completely aback.

"That's not much of a question, is it?" Warren practically purred, his timbre sultry, almost a growl.

Daniel didn't know what to say.

“I don't know what to say, Warren.”

There's a beat of silence.

Warren's shield of smug confidence softened at his name leaving Daniel's lips, but it was just barely noticeable. Daniel saw the slight fall of his smirk, the warmth in his eyes. Even that small display of emotion managed to humanize Warren, made him look vulnerable, yet at ease. Comfortable. At home.

It wasn't any sort of power move either. Not the slide of a piece across a chessboard. Not forged, not calculated, not even entirely intentional. This was among the few things Daniel was genuine about. Warren couldn't hide how Daniel affected him if he wanted to, and it almost gave Daniel a high. Daniel cherished the gentle reminders of Warren Kepler's humanity. He reveled in his subtle displays of emotion.

Love.

The thought seeped from the back of his mind, pushing forward, pestering. He forced it back, biting his lip, refusing to let it spoil the moment. That "favor" was most likely a result of Warren doing something unspeakable to other human beings that no one else volunteered to do. Kepler was probably commended for making a "brave sacrifice for the good of the company," while actually committing gruesome acts that didn’t seem to bother him at all. Kepler tried to hide his sadism from Jacobi, but he’d witnessed glimpses of it before. Those same soft eyes twisted into a psychotic joy when reflecting images of cruelty.

They're damaged men. They're doing a job. They're stalking a future candidate to form a team of special intelligence operators for a company that thrives on the ambiguity of the law, profits on immorality, death, and unethical practice. They've both killed- intentionally or not.

But for some reason, that doesn't change anything.

Well, unsurprisingly, it doesn't change anything.

Daniel wades into the depths of the eyes across from him. The murky shallows stare back at him hauntingly, bearing the memories of past atrocities.

But down in the deep, dark emptiness, something is glowing- warm- and Daniel can't focus on anything else but that light.

Before he can reach out, however, he's thrown back into reality by the annoying chimes in the pocket of his sweats. Daniel grimaces as he has to tear his eyes away from Warren's to flip his phone open.

“It's… an unknown number," Daniel says, thumb hovering over the screen.

“Well, don't answer it.”

Daniel lifts an eyebrow as he presses a button and turns on the speaker.

A strange voice echoes through the van.

“You guys are pretty sloppy. I thought the big man would send his best. Kind of a shame.”

Daniel looked up at Warren, who is interrupted before he can protest the woman on the other line.

“And yes, before you ask, I'm the person whose house you've decided to… make yourselves comfortable outside. And no, it wasn't that difficult to discern your identities, Mr. Jacobi and Major Kepler. Evening greetings, though; make sure to send Cutter my best.”

Daniel's brain had already short-circuited by "Mr. Jacobi." It was jarring to hear something so often said by Warren in someone else's words. The woman sounded smug in a foreign way. Less cocky and douchey, not imposing an inflated sense of confidence. She seemed to be gently notifying them of a power they both knew she didn't need to explain the full extent of. She sounded smart from her tone rather than her vocabulary. Playfully intelligent with a looming shadow of terrifying intensity.

Daniel already liked her.

“Dr. Alana Maxwell, I presume,” Warren said, seemingly unfazed.

“In the flesh. Or, rather, the voice, I guess.”

“I assume you know why we're here?”

“I have an idea.”

Warren sighed. Jacobi saw the military in him take over, his eyebrows furrowing just slightly, various plans, events, courses of action rotating through his mind. He seemed caught off guard, another thing that Jacobi felt unashamedly proud of.

“I imagine you've both seen I've been doing nothing but sitting in my house for the past four hours?” Alana says.

“Well," Warren starts, "prior knowledge of the vetting compromises the integrity of-”

“Stalking. We were stalking her.” Daniel snorts.

Warren looks at him, annoyed.

“Alana, right?” Daniel asks, leaning into his arm.

“The one and only.”

“What are you hoping to get out of this job?” Daniel asks, shushing Warren as he opens his mouth in protest. Alana hesitates for a moment, not expecting the question.

“I'm a scientist. I work with artificial intelligence, code, algorithms, and such. The things I want to do… not a lot of respectable research programs will fund. I think we can do more with artificial intelligence. I think there's potential we're not tapping into because of arbitrary rules created by powerful men who want to give off the illusion of humanity. I could accomplish something with my ideas, but as a prodigal MIT grad, everyone wants me to believe they'll give me my next big opportunity. Goddard's was the only offer that seemed to matter.”

The air is stagnant and quiet for a while.

Then Daniel's face grows into a huge, dopey grin.

“I think the stalking went well, don't you, Warren?”

Daniel looks at Warren with a twinkle. Warren's face scrunches up as he shakes his head, stifling a chuckle. He shoots Daniel a look as if to say, ‘Fine, I'll humor you.’

“I'll make sure to tell Cutter you're all set.”

Before he's even finished talking, the trunk flies open, and Alana is smiling at them, closing the doors behind her.

“All set? Great. Let's head over then,” Alana says.


End file.
